Pat Finder-Stone dabbed at her tears with tissues as she stared out the window aboard a B-17 bomber plane.

Three-thousand feet in the air, the engine roared and air rushed through the aircraft's ceiling. The sights and sounds brought the 85-year-old De Pere woman back to her days as an aviation nurse in the Korean War, she said.

"It brought back a lot of old times," she said. "The good times, the bad times."

Finder-Stone was one of four veterans to take a 20-minute ride in a restored B-17 Thursday at Austin Strabel International Airport.

Although she flew just one time on a B-17 during her years of service, Finder-Stone said it was a special mission.

In 1952, she was the nurse selected to accompany a service man, his wife and their sick 3-week-old child from their station in Greenland home to the United States aboard a B-17.

"It was desperate," she said. "We had to bring [the child] back or it would have died."

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Pat Finder-Stone, a former Air Force nurse who flew on B-17 aircraft, stands next to Aluminum Overcast after taking a ride on the WWII era bomber from Jet Air Group.
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Jim Matthews/Press-Gazette Media
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A few changes were made to the plane — including the installation of an incubator to keep the infant warm — so the aircraft could take a small child on an international flight, Finder-Stone said.

"It was a big effort to have this B-17 plane act as an air vac because that was not customary at that time," she said.

Finder-Stone said she has loved to fly ever since her days in the service. As she soared over Green Bay on Thursday, Finder-Stone said her thoughts were focused on that 1952 flight.

"I kept thinking about the mother of the baby and how she must have felt leaving Greenland and bringing her baby back to the States, wondering if her baby was going to be alive all the way," said Finder-Stone, who was 23 at the time. "It was a very challenging trip."

De Pere from the bomb sight in the nose turret of the B-17 bomber Aluminum Overcast while in flight Thursday, July 17, 2014. Jim Matthews/Gannett Wisconsin Media (Photo: Jim Matthews/Press-Gazette Media)

Pat Finder-Stone, a former Air Force nurse who flew on a B-17 aircraft, is pictured, lower left holding the baby, in the 1950's caring for a sick infant while on board a B-17 taking the child to medical care from Greenland. Jim Matthews/Gannett Wisconsin Media (Photo: Jim Matthews/Press-Gazette Media)

Pat Finder-Stone, a former Air Force nurse who flew on a B-17 aircraft, enjoys her ride on Aluminum Overcast, a WWII era bomber from Jet Air Group Thursday, July 17, 2014. Jim Matthews/Gannett Wisconsin Media (Photo: Jim Matthews/Press-Gazette Media)

Pat Finder-Stone, a former Air Force nurse who flew on B-17 aircraft, stands next to Aluminum Overcast after taking a ride on the WWII era bomber from Jet Air Group Thursday, July 17, 2014. Jim Matthews/Gannett Wisconsin Media (Photo: Jim Matthews/Press-Gazette Media)

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A B-17 is a low-wing monoplane usually equipped with bombs and as many as 13 machine guns.

Also aboard the plane was Steve Conway, 91, of Crandon. A World War II veteran, Conway said he piloted 42 missions aboard a B-17 bomber.

"I just want to feel those throttles in my fingers again," he said prior to takeoff.

Conway sat in the rear of the plane for the duration of the trip with a direct view of the flight deck. Conway nodded his head when asked by a relative if he could do a better job landing the plane.

Sponsored by Jet Air, Thursday's stop was one of more than 40 the plane will make during its 2014 national tour.

The plane never flew during war time and was purchased from the government for $700 in 1948 by a private individual, said George Daubner, operations manager and pilot for Experimental Aircraft Association, which owns the plane.